Payments2 Comments

Bring the banking experience forward to the transactional experience

Colin Henderson

There is an enormous intelligence in this paragraph from Dave. It centres on the reality that with each transaction, a consumer is making a decision about their banking service. That service may be merely a payment card, or it may be a BarclaysBofALloyds Card. it doesn’t matter. What has really happened is that the product experience has transferred from the old view of product, the bank account, to the new view, which is the experience. The experience occurs at the ATM, the POS terminal, the online banking session, the iphone app (oops you haven’t got that!). The customer experience is … Continue reading Bring the banking experience forward to the transactional experience

Uncategorized

China continues to display economic strain that will reflect on world economy

Colin Henderson

In the ‘how is the world doing’ category, this take (from the chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia and author of ‘The Next Asia’ (Wiley), due out in September) on China is consequential for us all. The west imported cheap labour from there for the 15 years preceding 2007, and the after effect is coming home to roost. What will matter to us all, and to banks, is the relative impacts on currency values as the historic imbalances are rebalanced to a different metric. I have to keep going back to how banks in the west redesign their products and services. … Continue reading China continues to display economic strain that will reflect on world economy

Uncategorized3 Comments

BofA could eventually cut 10 pct of branches | SF Chronicle

Colin Henderson

This is a theme that is gathering steam. It is based on the reality that customers are using internet for their banking, and there is a high level of redundancy in offerring similar capabilities in physical locations. The counterbalance is of course the need to attract customers, new accounts and deposits which has traditionally been a branch activity. That balance is shifting now and the tension between those two opposing forces will be ineresting to watch, as banks exectute strategies and consider their cost base. BofA could eventually cut 10 pct of branches SF Chronicle Bank of America Corp. could … Continue reading BofA could eventually cut 10 pct of branches | SF Chronicle

Innovation

The Best Business Model in the World

Colin Henderson

Umair zeros in on a real point that is precisely correct.  The point here is not what you may or may not think about prezi … the point is what prezi’s users think. Then relate that to what customers think of your bank’s products. The best business model in the world is also the simplest: make stuff that’s insanely great Everybody’s searching desperately for business model innovation: Detroit, newspapers, record labels, banks. No market is left untouched, no value proposition sacrosanct. Yet, the best business model in the world is also the simplest: make stuff that’s insanely great. Stuff that’s … Continue reading The Best Business Model in the World

Economy

Is China the next Lucent?

Colin Henderson

This is an interesting article over at Foreign Policy. It is interesting because it fits in the meme of what recovery looks like. Regular readers will by know by now I am firmly in the space that recovery will be framed by a smaller economy, and slower growth of that smaller economy. This piece compares the Chinese economy to Lucent during the dot com bubble. Lucent were selling to dot com company’s which disappeared. China was selling to US and to a lessor extent European consumers who have … disappeared. The minor distinction is that the consumers actually still exist, … Continue reading Is China the next Lucent?

Economy

Plan for Sound Banking – Conservative White Paper | analysis

Colin Henderson

Here is more on the Tory plan for banking outlined in the attached White Paper [57 pages]. Politics aside, lets take a look at the merits of this proposal and how it aligns with the problems I have perceived within banking and that are exacerbated over the last 2 years. The core issues I have seen are these: banks have become high dividend paying conduits due to protective regulation and tight association with Central Banks the regulatory protection produced a ‘cannot fail’ mentality about banks’ and .. this in turn resulted in no perceived need for a strong capital base, … Continue reading Plan for Sound Banking – Conservative White Paper | analysis

Security4 Comments

A security hole every banker must read

Colin Henderson

Every banker and security expert must read this. The flow here is common knowledge to security experts already but it really drives home to users how they must be careful about how they approach their password strategies. The key here is to note how the interconnection takes place between, in this case, gmail and the secondary address, hotmail. The former can be secure yet through innovative ‘social enginering’ the second can open all sorts of doors. Worthwhile to take the time .. read through and think about your approach. The Anatomy Of The Twitter Attack | Techcrunch Unfortunately for Twitter, … Continue reading A security hole every banker must read

Business Models1 Comment

Conservatives propose radical changes to banking regulation in UK

Colin Henderson

There are some dramatic proposals contained in the upcoming white paper from the Conservatrive opposition [UK] this week. They make sense and go to the core of the flexibility that allowed banks to become too speculative. They address leverage, and the investment banking/ retail banking integration challenge. The Conservatives are larely expected to win the next election, sometime in the next 12 months. Tories say break up the big banks | The Times He will be clear, however, that the Bank should have powers to order banks and other financial institutions to hold more capital when times are good, so … Continue reading Conservatives propose radical changes to banking regulation in UK

Uncategorized

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly | which is your bank?

Colin Henderson

In this video commentary on the US Banks results they note that while large profits are announced, any parts of the business related to the US consumer consumer is flat. This includes all retail banking and credit cards. The only bright spots are the fee based revenue from the investment banking units, hence JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs results, although poor old Citi did not even make it there. One quarter does not make or break anything in banking in and of itself. However the predictions of Roubini and Baker linked below are playing out as expected, so which banks … Continue reading The Good, the Bad and the Ugly | which is your bank?